Tag Archives: Gun Violence in South Seattle

Features

Local Communities Consider History in Attempt to Understand Gun Violence

by Rosette Royale

Everyone lost to gun violence is someone’s beloved.  Beloved is a multi-media campaign exploring gun violence in-depth in four phases: The Problem of gun violence as a symptom of illness (or infection) caused by systemic inequality; The History of gun violence, root causes, and local and national data trends. The Solutions to end gun violence including King County Public Health’s regional approach to gun violence prevention and treatments; and finally, the ideation of a world without gun violence, The Beloved Community. The Beloved project is brought to you in partnership with Seattle Office of Arts & Culture Hope Corps program, King County’s Public Health team, Converge Media, Black Coffee Northwest, Toybox Consulting, Creative Justice, The Facts Newspaper, Forever Safe Spaces, Northwest African American Museum, Presidential Media, and the South Seattle Emerald.

Ask Reco Bembry about the history of gun violence and how it affects local communities, and he may tell you a story from the recent past.

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Voices

OPINION: Dear Beloved – A Love Letter to Seattle’s Black Community

by Chardonnay Beaver

Everyone lost to gun violence is someone’s beloved.  Beloved is a multi-media campaign exploring gun violence in-depth in four phases: The Problem of gun violence as a symptom of illness (or infection) caused by systemic inequality; The History of gun violence, root causes, and local and national data trends. The Solutions to end gun violence including King County Public Health’s regional approach to gun violence prevention and treatments; and finally, the ideation of a world without gun violence, The Beloved Community. The Beloved project is brought to you in partnership with Seattle Office of Arts & Culture Hope Corps program, King County’s Public Health team, Converge Media, Black Coffee Northwest, Toybox Consulting, Creative Justice, The Facts Newspaper, Forever Safe Spaces, Northwest African American Museum, Presidential Media, and the South Seattle Emerald.

When tourists think of Seattle, Washington, their perspectives are limited. We can all agree: Everyone pairs Seattle with rain and/or coffee. 

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Features

Beloved: Recovery & Resilience

by Chardonnay Beaver

Everyone lost to gun violence is someone’s beloved.  Beloved is a multi-media campaign exploring gun violence in-depth in four phases: The Problem of gun violence as a symptom of illness (or infection) caused by systemic inequality; The History of gun violence, root causes, and local and national data trends. The Solutions to end gun violence including King County Public Health’s regional approach to gun violence prevention and treatments; and finally, the ideation of a world without gun violence, The Beloved Community. The Beloved project is brought to you in partnership with Seattle Office of Arts & Culture Hope Corps program, King County’s Public Health team, Converge Media, Black Coffee Northwest, Toybox Consulting, Creative Justice, The Facts Newspaper, Forever Safe Spaces, Northwest African American Museum, Presidential Media, and the South Seattle Emerald.

On the evening of Jun. 18, 2021, Samari Ladd-Ali and boyfriend Jihad Abdul-Haqq were looking forward to seeing one another. It was a casual Friday night when the two met for dinner to catch up. However, this Friday was different from those prior.

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Voices

OPINION: Rainier Beach — A Beautiful, Safe Place to Live?

by Reagan Jackson

This fall marked my 10th anniversary of owning a house in Rainier Beach, making this the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere. This year, instead of hosting a celebratory gathering or painting another wall, I stood sobbing in my living room, trapped in a nightmare while my neighbor boarded up my window and hung a sheet of canvas to keep the glass from further falling into the house.

When I arrived home on the evening of Oct. 26, 2021, I knew something was wrong.

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News

New Report Shows Uptick in Gun Violence Primarily Impacts Communities of Color

by Agueda Pacheco Flores

Terrell Elmore remembers feeling terrorized. The youth football coach says gun shots that sounded like they were nearby interrupted a September game. As the shots popped off, everyone at Judkins Park began to flee and run for shelter.

“It was probably a block away,” Elmore says. “We didn’t know if they were shooting, we didn’t know the scenario or what was behind it, we didn’t know if they were coming, we just didn’t know; and come to find out after I … ran up to where I heard the shots … They had already fled the scene and some girl came down there and shot eight times in the air.”

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News

Collective Against Gun Violence Launched Amid Record Year of Incidents

by Elizabeth Turnbull

As incidents of gun violence in King County are set to hit a new record so far this year, a group of community members and government leaders gathered on June 4, 2021 — a date that King County declared as Regional Community Safety and Well-being Day — to announce a new collective that will work to prevent more shootings.

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Voices

OPINION: Gun Violence Is a Symptom of Poverty

by Tammy Morales

When it comes to addressing gun violence in our community, it’s time to put our money where our mouth is. Organizations like Safe Passage, Boys & Girls Club’s SE Network, Rainier Beach Action Coalition (RBAC), and Urban Family invest time in our communities, support our young people, and build community. They have been doing essential work long before Omari Wallace was shot and killed on March 18. In fact, we were supposed to be having a Zoom meeting about the increase of South Seattle shootings when we learned that a young man walked into the Emerald City Bible Fellowship and shot 19-year-old Wallace who was there attending a meeting. 

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Voices

OPINION: When Black Men Are Killed in Seattle’s South End, Why Does Society Shrug?

by Marcus Harrison Green

(This article is co-published with The Seattle Times.) 

Listening to Lynda Wolff, I want to roar at the world to remember her murdered son’s life. Four years ago, Latrel Williams was shot multiple times while returning to his Lakeridge home.

In the aftermath of his death, I spotted no signs at marches acknowledging his life, no public speeches given in his honor, and no politicians furiously spouting his name to earn social justice merits.

But Lynda still lost a son. Latrel Jr. (LJ) lost a father. And I lost a friend.

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